A Louisiana-bred filly by Songandaprayer topped the yearling session of Monday’s Texas Summer Yearling and Mixed Sale at Lone Star Park. Held jointly by the Texas Thoroughbred Association and the track, the auction reported 44 of 82 yearlings sold for a total of $414,300. The median jumped 72.2 percent to $7,750 from last year’s mark of $4,500, and the average dropped from $11,556 to $9,415 this year. The buy-back rate this year was 46.3 percent.

Last year the yearling session grossed $681,800 with 59 of 90 sold.

Susan Naylor signed the ticket on the sale-topper with a price of $30,000 on hip 83. The March filly from the consignment of Clear Creek Stud, agent, is out of the stakes-placed Lion Heart mare Those Lion Eyes, whose one foal to race is a winner.

“Obviously we would have liked to see some bigger numbers today, but overall the middle and lower-end of the market seemed fine,” said Tim Boyce, sales director. “We just didn’t have the really exceptional individuals we had last year, so the average was down a bit but it’s encouraging that the median jumped almost 75 percent. It was also good to see the mixed session numbers jump compared to last year.”

In the mixed session this year, 18 of 24 head sold for $93,100 with an average of $5,172 and a median of $2,350. Those numbers compared favorably to last year’s mixed session that grossed $30,000 with 13 of 36 head sold for an average of $2,357 and median of $1,400.

The highest-priced horse in the mixed session was a weanling filly by Too Much Bling who sold for $19,000 to Naylor from the consignment of Benchmark Training Center, agent for the Estate of Ed Few. A good portion of the mixed session was composed of horses from Few, one of the state’s leading breeders and owners who passed away in April.

The Texas 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale is next up on the sale calendar at Lone Star and will be held April 9.